1. Apps that get clients paid faster

Good payment systems can double the speed at which bills are paid. Imagine what that could do for your clients’ cash flow.

For clients in retail
Point-of-sale apps turn a smartphone or tablet into a portable cash register, which can be a really inexpensive way to start selling. These systems also allow staff to go and serve customers where they are, rather than creating a bottleneck at the counter.See point-of-sale accounting apps (and reviews).

For clients who send invoices
Invoices are just about always paid late. But when they go out with instant payment options like Paypal, credit card, or online payment, accounts are settled faster. In some cases, money comes in twice as quickly. See payment accounting apps (and reviews).

2. Make annoying receipts and data entry go away

Keeping records of transactions is one of the great pains of small business ownership. Holding onto physical receipts and invoices only adds to the trouble. It’s such a chore that most clients procrastinate and you end up harassing them for data at the end of each financial year.

Do everyone a favour and automate the process. Smart accounting technology allow clients to record paper receipts simply by photographing them on their phone. The software reads the picture, transcribes the purchase data, and sends it into their accounting software. It’ll do the same for electronic invoices – clients just need to forward the emailed invoice to the app.

3. Create easy, accurate time records

Businesses with poor time-keeping can run into compliance issues, and many haemorrhage money. Some overpay hourly workers, others over-service clients. Yet most small businesses think a formal timekeeping system will be an expensive hassle. Be the advisor who shows them how easy it can be.

Online timesheets allow staff to clock on from their phones, using the phone’s GPS to confirm they’re actually at work. There’s no infrastructure to buy or install. And the time records can be coded to various tasks, allowing you to figure out how much time is going into specific jobs.

4. Put clients in charge of their inventory

Inventory is a massive cost, yet very few small businesses manage it well. They don’t have the processes or human resources to stay on top of it, so they end up relying on periodic stocktakes. That limits what you can do from an accounting perspective. For example it’s hard to track products and figure out the true cost of goods sold (COGS).

Software can do a lot of the grunt work for your clients. The right accounting technology will add new items to inventory as stock comes into the business, and subtract them as they’re sold. The real-time view of inventory will help clients get their ordering just right, and will allow you to drill down into COGS.

5. Take the leap into ecommerce

More and more small businesses want an online shop, and it doesn’t make sense for them to stop at having just one. Besides a store on their own website, smart businesses also sell goods through Facebook, Google, Amazon or eBay. Those big platforms can really expand their reach (see our small business guide on online marketing).

Getting started with ecommerce is daunting, and keeping tabs on multiple shops can be downright scary. But there are now some great off-the-shelf apps for all of this. And they’ll integrate with accounting software, so you can keep sight of the whole business.

6. Sort out the sales cycle – and predict cash flow – with CRM

Clients can set up the system to reflect the steps in their sales cycle, then identify where each prospect sits in the funnel. As time goes on, they’ll figure out what sales or marketing activities are required at each stage, and they may even be able to automate some of them.

A CRM will also help your clients work out when prospects might become sales, which will help with cash flow management. And the systems can be synced with accounting software, so sales staff can issue invoices from the CRM as soon as they get a yes.

7. De-stress payroll without using an expensive service

Hiring employees should be one of the great highs of small business ownership, but it becomes stressful for most people.

It takes a lot of coordination to pay people the right amount, on the right day, while complying with tax and reporting obligations. You can strip away a lot of that admin pain by setting up a system that automatically calculates tax, creates detailed reports, pays direct into staff bank accounts, makes it easy to reimburse expenses, and keeps track of employee leave (and leave requests).

Plenty of accounting apps are out there

There’s a lot of accounting technology that can improve profitability. The types we’ve mentioned here are among the most popular, but there are more. Xero integrates with over 700+ third-party applications. That’s the power of online accounting. Check out the app store and start driving new efficiencies for your clients.